Cardinal Kelvin Felix to celebrate 60 years as a priest

On April 17, 2016, His Eminence Kelvin Edward Cardinal Felix will celebrate his 60th anniversary of priestly ordination with a mass at the Windsor Park Sports Stadium.

He has worked and contributed significantly in several spheres of life in Dominica and the region.

Cardinal Felix was born on February 15, 1933 in Roseau Dominica, one of the nine children of Major Edward Mosley Felix, Chief of the Dominica Police Force and his wife Melanie Cadette. His primary education was at the Roseau Boys School, followed by secondary education at the Dominica Grammar School. He then proceeded to study for the priesthood at the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney in Trinidad and was ordained as a priest on April 8th 1956 in Dominica. He was the first diocesan priest and the first priest to be ordained in Dominica.

Cardinal Felix attained a Diploma in Adult Education from the University of Nova Scotia in 1963 and a Masters Degree from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in Sociology and Anthropology. He also in 1970 completed post graduate studies in Sociology at the University of Bradford in Yorkshire, England.

Among the various positions which he subsequently held, He taught at the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and Ugandan Martyrs, Trinidad and was a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus; he was Principal of the St. Mary’s Academy from 1972 to 1975. He also served in regional leadership as the Associate General Secretary of the Caribbean Conference of Churches from 1981 to 1986 and President of the Antilles Episcopal Conference from 1991 to 1997. In addition he served internationally on various Pontifical committees of the Holy See, such as the Pontifical Council for Family Life, Vox Clara, he Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and he Synodal Council for America.

He was appointed as Archbishop of the province of Castries on October 8th 1981 and his province included the dioceses of St. George’s in Grenada, Kingstown, Roseau and St. John’s/Basseterre. He was awarded an Honary Doctorate of Law from Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia in 1986.

At the Papal Consistory of February 22nd 2014, Pope Francis elevated the then Archbishop Felix to the rank of Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was appointed Cardinal Priest of Santa Maria della Salute a Primavalle.

In addition to the many distinguished positions in which he has served, Cardinal Felix was also awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1992, the Dominica Medal of Honour, Dominica’s highest award, in 1999 and the St. Lucia Medal of Honour in 2002.

Cardinal Felix retired in 2008 and returned to his homeland Dominica and served as parish Priest of Grandbay and later Soufriere where he still resides and assists.